Thursday, July 10, 2014

Florida wins $7 million for wasting $47 million in food stamp funds

MIAMI — Florida once again is getting a hefty bonus — $7 million to be exact — from the feds for “saving” taxpayers money.

This year, the state’s Department of Children and Families managed to
misspend only $47,829,887 in food stamp benefits. That’s out of almost
$6 billion the state received from the federal government.

Nevertheless, Florida’s error rate of .81 percent is the second lowest in the nation,
and only a slight dip from the previous year when the state received $8
million for having the lowest in the nation at 0.7 percent. Vermont had
the highest waste rate at 9.66 percent, while the national average was
3.2 percent.

“We are pleased Florida is again being recognized as a leader for
quality and accuracy in processing food assistance applications,” DCF
Interim Secretary Mike Carroll said in a statement.
“The department is committed to helping individuals in crisis and being
able to quickly assist families and individuals in need of these
resources is one of our principal functions.

“This is the seventh year in a row that DCF’s improvements and
accuracy in correctly processing food assistance applications has
received accolades and bonus money from the federal government, totaling
more than $54 million.”